Asian tech roundup: Startup fever costs SoftBank

Plus: The disappearance of (another) Chinese billionaire

Welcome to Computing's fortnightly roundup of tech news in Asia. This time we look at Australian security fears; Chinese tech layoffs; and an Indian data breach.

• Australia's federal government has committed to removing cameras made in China from government buildings, fearing a security risk. More than 900 are installed around the country. There are fears around where the data collected could end up and what else it could be used for. The UK has recommended a similar move. Source.
• Arm China has laid off almost 100 staff, about 14% of its workforce, mostly engineers in research and development. Source.
• Bao Fan, a high-profile Chinese billionaire, tech investor and CEO of China Renaissance Holdings, has gone missing. His company has been unable to contact him for at least two days, mirroring a similar event in 2020 when Alibaba founder Jack Ma disappeared for several months. Source.
• China's Tencent is cutting costs at its metaverse unit and has decided to abandon plans to develop its own VR hardware. Sources say it faced difficulties in achieving a fast profit and balked at the large investment needed. Source.
• Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp. has not only laid off staff in China, but evicted them from company housing. The firm fired between five and 10% of staff in response to being added to the US trade embargo list and general economic downturn. Source.
• Indian social media app Slick has left user data exposed online for months. A database containing names, mobile numbers, dates of birth and profile pictures has been online without a password since at least December. Source.
• SoftBank Group, Japan-based owner of Arm, has reported a $5.9 billion net loss for its third financial quarter, ending 31st December 2022. It pointed to the poor performance of its Vision Fund, which invests in startups, as a major loss-maker (responsible for $5.5 billion of the total). Source.
• Pakistan has unblocked Wikipedia, after three days of censoring the website over what the local telecoms regulator called "sacrilegious" content. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the unblocking order, saying the unintended consequences outweigh any benefits of the ban. Source.